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Welcome to IVB's Home Theater and Home Automation blog. I hope you enjoy reading about how i'm building my own smart home using art from VladStudio.com, an Elk automation panel, and the CQC HA/HT software engine.

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Fun with HA announcements over the audio system

The bitter cold arctic winds this am prompted me to do something cool that anyone with CQC and Windows XP on their server (at least the one hooked up to the stereo) can do: Announce the current temperature, forecast, and high for the day at 8am every am.

It was pretty darn easy. I’ve avoided using my audio equipment for HA announcements given the 1-2s delay in turning on, switching sources, etc, but given that we don’t use any of it then, and that this is a timed event, that’s not a problem. I set it up so that:
1) System wakes up at 8am
2) Turns on master bedroom zone
3) sets input & volume
4) Waits 2s
5) Begins series of announcements
6) Waits 3s
7) Repeats, just in case we didn’t catch it.

Here’s the gory details of the “coding”. All point&click, except obviously the “good morning/etc” bit.